Inspired to serve veterans

Sunday

Nov 11, 2012 at 12:01 AM

TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center has received about $80 million for construction projects, and the center has grown by about 200 new jobs in the past five years. Now, the Tuscaloosa VA's director, Alan Tyler, will retire after working 40 years in the VA system.

By Lydia Seabol AvantStaff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | The Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center has received about $80 million for construction projects, and the center has grown by about 200 new jobs in the past five years. Now, the Tuscaloosa VA's director, Alan Tyler, will retire after working 40 years in the VA system. He has been director at the Tuscaloosa VA five years today. “I always wanted to do something for the country,” Tyler said, who added that serving veterans has been his passion.Tyler, a Chicago native, started his career as an alcohol and drug counselor at the Tuscon VA Medical Center in Tuscon, Ariz., where he treated veterans returning from Vietnam. During the past four decades, he has worked at seven VA medical centers across the country, including serving as assistant director in Northampton, Mass., and also at the VA center in Birmingham before taking the director post in Tuscaloosa. But Tyler said that of all the VA centers, he has been most inspired by the employees at the Tuscaloosa VA. “Tuscaloosa is by far the best when it comes to the staff's commitment to veterans as far as the staff,” Tyler said. “It's given us the opportunity to do a lot. The staff has been absolutely perfect in executing the vision and putting it to work.”The Tuscaloosa VA has evolved in recent years, updating buildings and opening new centers where service is veteran-focused. In 2008, the VA renovated an existing floor of the hospital and created the Valor Rehabilitation Center, where veterans who are undergoing rehabilitation live in a comfortable, homelike environment where they are also close to their needed services. In 2010, a specialized outpatient clinic was opened specifically for female veterans, and a residential care program for women followed. Most recently, the VA has renovated its existing nursing home care, called Community Living Centers, to create modernized home-like environments. On Nov. 1, Tyler cut the ribbon on a $9 million new veteran activity center and a 10,000-square-foot cottage for veterans who need continued care. In the next few years, 11 more of the deluxe, specialized-care cottages are planned. It's something that makes the Tuscaloosa VA a leader nationally when it comes to veteran care, Tyler said. It's also a service that will increase in demand as the number of veterans who are senior citizens continues to grow.“What we are doing here is ahead of the curve nationally,” Tyler said. “Our homeless program is getting referrals from as far away as Alaska, and people are coming from all over the country because of what we are doing here.”There is a growing need for the residential services for homeless veterans, not just from West Alabama but across the U.S., Tyler said. One of Tyler's pet projects has been helping decrease the homeless veteran population, particularly among female veterans who have children. Early next year, the Tuscaloosa VA will partner with developers to break ground on a new three-story “enhanced use lease” project on the VA grounds that will include 25 two- and three-bedroom apartments dedicated toward homeless female veterans and their families. Another existing building nearby will be renovated into 25 single-bedroom apartments for homeless veterans.In recent years, the Tuscaloosa VA has also tried to extend services into rural West Alabama to serve veterans who cannot come to Tuscaloosa. In 2009, the Selma Outreach Clinic was opened to help care for 700 veterans who were not being previously served. A mobile health clinic program was started, in which a bus allows health-care services to be extended to rural veterans in Fayette, Hamilton, Demopolis and Livingston. “At first, we were afraid that the (Selma Outreach Clinic) might take veterans away from the Montgomery VA,” Tyler said. “But it wasn't the case.”Instead, the Selma clinic provides care for veterans who were never treated before because they couldn't make the trip to Montgomery or Tuscaloosa, he said. While Tyler said he is proud of the Tuscaloosa VA's services and facilities, he said he is most proud of its staff, specifically after the April 27, 2011, tornado. About 80 of the 1,000 VA employees lost their homes in the storm, Tyler said, but most came to work anyway. In the days and weeks after the tornado hit Tuscaloosa, the center sheltered as many as 150 veterans made homeless by the storm. The center also became the makeshift morgue for the city, receiving all the tornado victims' bodies. Staff members who had no experience working in a morgue stepped up to serve the victims and their families, Tyler said. “This is not a trauma center, but the staff volunteered,” Tyler said.When families came to the VA to identify their loved ones, psychiatrists and counselors were on hand to assist with bereavement counseling. When one family who had lost everything came to identify a young girl who died in the storm, members of the VA staff bought the girl a dress to be buried in, as well as clothes for the family, so that they would have something to wear to the funeral, Tyler said. When one man came in to identify his wife, who was badly disfigured in the storm, a photographer at the VA volunteered and took pictures of her birthmarks so that the man could identify his wife without looking at her damaged face, he said. “The staff continued working and supporting the community,” Tyler said. “Time and time again, they did the right thing.”Tyler received a commendation from VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki for his leadership during the tornado disaster. The secretary cited Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center “as a shining example of effective response to a severe emergency.”Tyler will officially retire on Jan. 3. The VA is in the process of finding his replacement. Initially, Tyler said he wants to take a “sabbatical” to rest and decide whether to stay in Tuscaloosa or move elsewhere for retirement. Ultimately, Tyler said he wants to continue serving veterans in his retirement, because it's something he's been doing for 40 years. “I will keep my eyes open for ways I can advocate for veterans,” Tyler said. Serving the country — and its veterans — is all he said he ever wanted to do.